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Jupiter schoolteacher claims vape battery exploded in pants

It’s never a good thing when something spontaneously combusts in your pants.

Mathew D. Merman of Jupiter in a May 18 lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court claims that the battery in his e-cigarette exploded in his pants.

The lawsuit is against Coastline Vapor in Jupiter. A call to the owner of the store for comment was not returned.

Merman is a teacher but his attorney isn’t naming the school. He is also a user of electronic cigarettes – or vapes. And like many people who use electronic cigarettes to inhale nicotine, Merman had purchased the battery as a spare from Coastline Vapor, he claims in the complaint.

Merman was in the teacher’s lounge on April 8 when he started to feel a burning sensation on his thigh. He had charged the battery – purchased in February – and put it in the pocket of his pants.

“The last thing he expected was to look down and see his pants caught on fire,” said Merman’s attorney Brian Denney. “He absolutely used the product in the manner that it was intended.”

Denney said his client suffered severe burns on his leg and had to go to the hospital. The strict liability lawsuit hopes to discover the manufacturer of the battery through discovery. “The battery is completely charred,” he said.

The attorney said he has learned of other cases of exploding vape batteries around the country.

“It just goes to show you more research needs to be down on the entire product from the batteries on down,” Denney said.

He said that a lot of tobacco smokers are turning to vaping but that e-cigarettes still employ the same addictive nicotine as found in cigarettes.

“The jury is still out about inhaling this vapor that is made up of chemicals and is offered as a safe alternative,” said Denny, whose firm Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley has sued cigarette manufacturers for knowingly peddling a deadly product.

“Anything that keeps that addiction merry-go-’round going is dangerous. Nicotine is the most dangerous drug in the world.”